A man gets his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in a compartment. Photo: Li Hao/GT

This is a very tough winter. China reported 107 new cases of coronavirus infections on Tuesday. Of these, 90 are from North China's Hebei Province. There are also infections in Northeast China's Heilongjiang and North China's Shanxi Province. Beijing, which is surrounded by Hebei, has resolutely tightened measures of epidemic prevention and control. 

Having 107 cases confirmed in one day is very scary to Chinese. But in the US, over 4,400 people died from coronavirus between Monday evening and Tuesday evening local time. Meanwhile, more than 230,000 Americans were tested positive for the virus on the same day. 

It is unimaginable what our lives would be like if this scenario occurred in China!

We have to survive this winter. The top mission of each country is to reduce the relevant death toll. And the second mission is to bring our lives back on track to a normal state as much as possible. All other tasks should come next. 

The US and Western countries tossed out quite a few showy rhetoric. They hijacked the public's attention in an attempt to make a good excuse for their own incompetence. In any previous war, the US did not lose over 4,400 people in one day. The US failures in this battle are completely unforgivable. It can be argued that US national governance has collapsed in the face of this virus. 

This winter will really test different governments' leadership and their peoples' ability to unite as a whole; instead of simply bragging about themselves.

Compared with the US and other Western countries, China's performance in the COVID-19 fight may be much too better. It has become meaningless for China to compare with the US, as if China deliberately wants to criticize the country. In fact, it is the US that always wants to compare itself with China in terms of human rights. The US does not even feel embarrassed about its poor human rights situation, forcing people like me to make necessary counterattacks against it: Do not discuss human rights with others when you are failing to stop masses of American people from dying of COVID-19.

This winter, China cannot look at any other country as a model for itself. We should compare with ourselves and with people's expectations. China has had no COVID-19 death cases for several months, which is good. But it is still a tough battle to control the coronavirus from spreading and to prevent the COVID-19 resurgence on a large scale. History will give China a medal for fighting the epidemic. Meanwhile, it will also nail the US, which failed but is still bluffing, on a pillar of shame.

The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn